Chapter 35

(21 BBY)

(Tatooine)

The fleet now orbits Tatooine. The strikes against Palpatine's observatories were a success. They were very well hidden but poorly guarded, mainly because most were just setup in recent years. Either way they are all but craters now. On the plus side we got many relics and most of all valuable. I will sell most of the dark side relics to the Hutts or toss them into a star and I will keep the Jedi ones. While all the credits, valuables and data will be put to good use.

Right now, I am about to answer a call from the Jedi. I was requested to advice on the case of attempted assassination of the Chancellor. The holograms of master Windu, Yoda and the Vice Chancellor pop up.

"To what do I owe the pleasure. Oh, and I hope the Chancellor is doing well. I would suggest he stop drinking too much. It's not good for his health considering his age" I say. Only for Mas Amedda to stare at me through narrowed eyes.

"Exactly why we called you, as of now we have no lead on who or how the assassin was able to poison the Chancellor" said Windu "We would like to have your input on this and hopefully buy any intelligence you could offer".

"Well from what I was able to scrounge up the assailants covered their tracks well, and from the looks of it they were Sith. Especially taking into account the secret base in the LiMerge building, you should have torn that place apart by now. I think the Jedi council should have come to the same conclusion as well" I said, they frown quite deeply "As for catching them, you can forget it. If it were me, I would leave no trails to follow after such a daring hit. I will forward what intel I have for the right prices".

"How can I be sure your people weren't involved?" asked Mas Amedda "I am here only because the Jedi asked for my presence, I don't trust your innocence"

"Well, would you look at that. I am also here because they requested it. And for your information I couldn't give a flying Kriff about what you think of me. As for my innocence, if I wanted the chancellor dead, he would be one with the force now. I don't leave things half dead" I said pointedly to the Vice Chancellor "As for my advice, I suggest increasing his security. This could have been an inside Job as well. I would suggest placing Jedi masters to Guard him around the clock. Atleast five should do. And they must be by his side all the time and shouldn't let him get out of their sights for any reason" I said to the Jedi.

"Good point you make. Place Jedi guards we must. Prevent more attempts it may" said mater Yoda.

"That won't be needed master Yoda. Using Jedi masters to protect me will be overkill. I would just increase the guards around the Chancellor" argued Mas Amedda.

"Oh, it's needed alright. No matter how many guards you place it will have little to no effect. My recommendation is to place well trained, disciplined and strong-willed Jedi masters around the Chancellor to protect him" I said earning me a glare from Mas Amedda "Appointing Jedi masters would be better than wasting money on increasing guard numbers. I would again suggest that they be around him at all times as well" I said forwarding the data and recommendation to the Jedi.

"Is that really necessary?" says Mas Amedda, again trying to shoot down the idea.

"Ofcourse Vice Chancellor, we don't want the Chancellor to end up dead in one of the many underground tunnels. Now do we?" I asked. Only Palpatine would understand the hidden meaning behind that. Though Mas Amedda was quite intelligent himself, he now looks at me with weary eyes. He starts to connect the dots in his mind. Everything from the assassination attempt to the death of Gunray and San Hill and the current battles across their secret ally's planets. Everything was caused by the Chancellor making a move against my interests. He finally got the message loud and clear. That I knew who the chancellor was. I knew of his connections. And that if they Kriff with me, there will be repercussions.

The meeting went on for another half an hour. I was able convince them to place five Jedi including two masters around Palpatine, as his guards. Needless to say, he will not be too happy with any of the recent developments when he comes out of his comma.

(Time Skip)

I am currently on a call with Poggle The Lesser.

*I have read through you contracts and conditions. We find it acceptable. As long as you can defend my planet against the Republic invasion and provide us with the planetary shields and weapons listed, the prize you mentioned and the handing over of listed weapon designs are within our scope* said Poggle the lesser.

"Good. Send over the signed contract and I will get the ball rolling. I would suggest you leave the Separatist after you have turtled up and start peace talks with the republic, with the commitment of remaining neutral. It will be best for your species" I said. Soon I received the signed contract and initial payments.

*We will take your suggestion into consideration* said Poggle.

"Very well. We will arrive within the week. Keep your hiring of our services a secret from even your allies" I reminded him.

*It shall be so. We await your arrival* said Poggle before cutting the connection. Me feeding anonymous intel to all the Separatist council members have them making moves behind each other's back.

I turned to my squad and the three admirals, they were waiting nearby "You heard the bug-man, we have a republic fleet to crush" they all smile sinisterly.

(1 week later)

My fleet is near Geonosis. We await the arrival of the Republic fleet, hidden in the far outer reaches of the system. We have positioned ourselves in such a way that we can ambush them as they are pulled out of hyperspace by our gravity mines. I have a small portion of the Servitors unloading the supplies the Geonosians bought through us. They wanted it to remain a secret. They had received supplies of planetary shields and a couple of planetary orbital defense canons and ion canons. After the one-month period of our contract, they will be able to defend themselves for a long time.

(POV Ahsoka)

We received information from Padme that the Geonosians are restarting droid forges on the planet of Geonosis. And from some intelligence reports it will mostly be a ground battle. For this mission the Republic has deployed six Venators class star destroyers, Ten Acclimator class assault ships, four C70 chargers and more than 200,000 clone soldiers. This will be a major operation. It also has a major Jedi deployment as well. The council deployed Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Luminara Unduli and Anakin, along with me and fellow padawan Barriss Offee.

All of us are currently gathered on the communications center. We were just finalizing the plans of attack, after informing high command of the plan. Suddenly all the masters felt a small warning through the force.

"Did you also sense that?" asked Skyguy.

"Yes, something doesn't feel right" commented master Obiwan.

Suddenly the ship jerked violently, as if it was pulled out of hyperspace. And soon enough alarms start going off. The ship vibrates with explosions. We run to the bridge.

"What's happening?" asked Master Obiwan to the nearby clone officer.

"Sir, we just got pulled out of hyperspace by gravity mines. Just as we got pulled out, we got hit by a massive wave ion cannon attack. It took out our shields throughout the fleet. We are currently being attacked by large number of bombers and fighter. They are targeting our hangars; shield projectors and weapons" reported the officer. There was a set of large explosions.

"All main guns are out of commission, we have multiple hull breaches" reported one of the officers "They are concentrating on our weapons, hangars and shield projectors. The entire fleet will be toothless in a minute" he shouted.

All of us move quickly to the view port. We are greeted by the sight of an all too familiar fleet, as it encircles us in a crescent formation. "Why are they attacking us?" I shouted. Confusion evident in my voice.

"They might have gotten a contract to stop any attacks on this planet" commented Master Obiwan.

The bridge was in a state panic. Then the officer analyzing scanner data shouted out "We have identified the attackers. It's the Ghost fleet" a bit too late. We had already identified the massive fleet.

The view from the view port was demoralizing to say the least. Turbo laser fire and bombers were tearing apart every weapon emplacement through out he fleet. All the while Ion canon rounds kept our shields down. There was no retaliating. They were prepared for us.

"Sir, incoming transmission form the hostile fleet" shouted a coms officer. We quickly moved to the holo terminal. Soon the image of the most infamous Mandalorian came up. All the while the ships are rocking under the continuous attacks.

"Greetings Jedi. What brings you to this neck of the woods?" he asked whimsically.

"Let me guess you have a contract to prevent any invasion on Geonosis?" asked Obiwan

"Why, yes indeed. A standard one-month contract. We are to prevent any invasions from occurring for that duration. I would suggest you pull back and try after one month" he said.

"You speak as if launching and pulling back invasions is a child's game" said Master Ki-Adi-Mundi.

"Oh, this is no game" just then our ship rocks hard "As of now you are down four frigates and two acclimators. I would suggest you pull back without wasting more lives needlessly. That is if you view clone lives any differently than the Separatists view droids" finished Nomad playing at our moral standing.

There was silence. As more of our ships are decimated. The Ghost fleet was baring down on us from three directions. We were out gunned and outnumbered.

"Come on Nomad, please stop firing on us. We have to stop the Geonosian factories or more lives will be lost" I said in a pleading tone. I knew demanding won't fly with him. Plus, he seemed kind enough.

"Like the lives lost during this invasion? You could always just demand they withdraw from the separatists and become a neutral faction" said Nomad.

"Like that's going to happen, Poggle is too loyal to Dooku" said Ki-Adi-Mundi.

"On the contrary, due to the way the war is going, their species will most likely perish. Just guaranteeing they will not be harmed by the republic, if they withdraw from the Separatists should be enough to sue for peace" he said, pausing to think about something "You didn't hear this from me. There are some Separatist council members who are not happy with Dooku. Especially with the unfortunate death of the Trade federation Viceroy and the Banking clan chairman. Add on to that the battles that are happening or happened across some key separatist planets. Play your cards right and you may yet have peace" said Nomad.

"On that topic, did you have something to do with that? Thousands are dead or dying" asked master Luminara.

"Why would I do something like that? It's not like they sent bounty hunters after people under my protection or after me. If they did, I would most surely unleash unrelenting vengeance on those responsible and their people. I most definitely had nothing to do with it" he said in a matter of fact way while looking mainly at Anakin. Who had a sudden expression of epiphany and then a sinister smile, before schooling it to a calm one. All of us noted the changes in his expression. We also noticed the sudden decrease in explosions "Oh, look at that. All your ships are out of main guns and shields. You can gather your survivors and wounded before leaving" said Nomad suddenly and cut the transmission

We just let out a collective sigh and walk towards the viewport. All four corvettes, along with 6 Acclimators were wrecked. They won't be going anywhere. Every other ship suffered serious damage, but they could still make it back to base.

"Inform the Ghosts we surrender and will withdraw from the system, after we rescue all survivors from the wrecked ships and see to the wounded. Once everyone is gathered, we will retreat back to base. We are in no position to push the attack" ordered Obiwan.

"I concur" said Ki-Adi-Mundi.

"Intelligence dropped the ball on this one" said Anakin "We would have delayed the attack, if we knew they were on guard duty"

"Sir the Ghosts offered basic repairs if we require them and assistance rescuing the survivors, on sighing and sending back the document they have sent" reported an officer.

"I wonder what his obsession with signed documents is?" asked Anakin "What does it say?" he asked the officer.

"It declares that we have surrendered and ceased all hostilities, and in return they will help us rescue survivors and help do basic repairs to the surviving ships. It also says we will leave behind the wrecks for them to scavenge and reuse" said the officer. He didn't know whether to be mad they got their asses handed to them or be happy that the ghosts are honorable.

Master Obiwan sighs and sends the signed document and orders "Tell everyone to just abandon the wrecked ships and leave their equipment behind. These guys will get frisky when it comes to their loot, and we quite literally handed all those over to them. Also pass on the order to maintain discipline and not to start any conflicts".

Soon enough a dozen Munificents and Dh-Omnis move towards our decimated fleet to help in rescue and repair efforts, all the while the rest of their ships have guns pointed at us. Sigh. Wonder what will high command say.

(Time Skip)

(GNN News)

"Thank you, Miralda, for the report" Gina Parker says as she looks at a sudden new entry on her Datapad, before continuing.

"Breaking news coming in now. A major defeat for the republic invasion force sent to Geonosis. The appearance of The Ghost Fleet, under temporary Geonosian contract had decimated the attack fleet. But reports indicate that casualties were minimal. For people that don't know, The Ghost Fleet is a neutral but heavily armed mercenary fleet. They take contracts from both sides to fight in battles they find acceptable and honorable. Reports suggests that they apparently not only did they defeated the invasion fleet, but as a sign of honor helped rescue the survivors and repair the remaining ships. After a formal surrender was signed. We will leave you with the recordings of the aftermath and some parts of the fleet battle, before we go to a short break"

Gina Parker could be seen reading through the report with an incredulous face, as she went through it again.